Although a simple change to a configuration option (dpkg --force-architecture) is sufficient to permit installation of .debs built for another architecture, more information is needed if we want package managers to intelligently resolve the dependencies for these packages. Some dependencies on other packages, such as on ELF libraries, can only be satisfied by a package of the same architecture ("x->x dependency"); others, such as dependencies on an interpreter used by a maintainer script, can be satisfied by a package of any architecture as long as it's functional ("x->any dependency").

Today, dependency resolution is restricted to packages with the same architecture (with the exception of Architecture: all packages), and a package of the same name but a different architecture is assumed to not be co-installable. This spec introduces a new binary package field Multi-Arch, to be set on any package wanting a different behaviour from today, based on this specification.

Although this comes from a Ubuntu wiki it does seem to explain what some of you have been experiencing. Looks like multiarch has a way to go yet.

GeneBenson wrote:............. Looks like multiarch has a way to go yet.

Yep. Its very new and very much expected to not be fully mature yet, but sure holds interesting possibilities for the future... I am not a Skype or Wine user. In the two years I have been using LMDE, the previous DraftSight example is the only 32 bit package I ever tried to install on my (LMDE/Shell/SID) installation.Looking forward to seeing future developments.

Not a breakage, but .... Back some 4 months ago we had to modify our etc/apt/preferences file (or delete it) as Mint libcairo and fontconfig prevented normal SID DU's. That has changed. I just noticed a couple days ago while updating my new KDE/LMDE installtion from UP5 to SID, that was no longer necessary. Upgrade proceeded just fine with the standard Mint preferences

Today, out of curiosity I changed one of my old SID partitions from having no preferences file (I deleted it back when...). To having the standard Mint preferences file (the one above), to see if there were any additional upgrades available. There were -- a couple multimedia files.

My primary (for work) OS is a basic Debian 6 Squeeze set to 'stable+backports' ... using the backports repro keeps everything up-to-date and Debian is well known for being rock-solid-stable always!! Just keeps getting more and more stable as time goes on.

I recently, installed a new release of Debian 7 Wheezy (testing) after the freeze began. I like what I see with what the new Debian OS is becoming.

Third, but not least, is an original install of LMDE 201012 - upgraded to Sid (unstable). I find nothing lacking with 'unstable'. Pretty, fast, up-to-date and everything works, as they say with most MInt releases - out of the box.

LMDE-Sid ... No problems with stability what-so-ever. Only real major change was not using Mint-Updater, as it can't keep up with updating Sid using the Terminal and the use of APT: Pinning in Preferences.

Same here...Not the slightest hint of a 'hiccup' since early last June.viewtopic.php?f=198&t=70230&start=1140#p593758And that was fixed in hours.I actually had more problems upgrading another partition from UP4 to UP5, that I have had running SID the last year.That said, I would not recommend running SID, unless you keep a weekly clone, and do daily updates. Most any xorg or kernel updates make re-installing Nvidia a 'given'..(for me). With SMXI/SGFXI that is a two minute job.

Possibly, but if you look at the first post (actual breakages), there have been very few problems in the past year. I suspect most of the new problems will come more from the new DE's (Cinnamon, Mate, Gnome 3.6, et) than actually from Debian SID.XFCE (I updated to 4.10 from Experimental), and KDE 4.8 have been rock solid.Anytime you see mass REMOVALS (and that hasn't happened in a long time), just wait a day or so, and the issue is usually resolved.

Just watch, just because we are saying this, SID will probably implode tomorrow.....

I have given up on http://http.debian.net for the time being. It did work fine for a while, then problems arose. It was causing me to have to run apt-get update over and over before it would complete correctly. The when I ran dist-upgrade it would constantly not find file, and have to be repeated over and over until it went through. I presume the cause of this is because the various repos do not all update at exactly the same time. I have reverted to the main repo and all the problems have gone.

Anyone else have these issues? Maybe I am just in the "wrong" timezone.

Hey fellow Sidean's, I have been away for awhile. Getting my system back running SID again. This is my second computer change in the last 6 months. I think I am keeping this one for a while but you never know. It is a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E535. Here are the specs:

Ok now for my question: I like trying all the DE that are available to run. Obviously on one machine this can be dangerous I guess with duplication of packages.So right now I have Base XFCE and have added. Cinnamon , MATE, KDE.All are somewhat working.I had a problem with Cinnamon not starting properly. I was getting the Something went wrong box and only a desktop with Icons on it (no task bar).I could go out to a terminal and type cinnamon -- replace and the task bar would come back.I did some reading and found out where to put cinnamon --replace in a startup location and that works for loading Cinnamon.However when I load MATE I get the MATE menu at the top and the Cinnamon Menu at the bottom. Kind of interesting way to work.I don't really want the Cinnamon menu in MATE. It works ok but I don't need 2 menus.I removed cinnamon --replace but it is still showing up.Not sure where I need to get rid of it from.Thanks for the help guys.Glad to be back with the fun of SID.I've gotten pretty good with rebuilding my system from time to time./home being on a separate partition is the way to go.Dan

I have a somewhat different setup. I basically use a different installation for each (not always ) desktop. (See my signature line). To avoid such problems.Perhaps if you make a different user for each desktop, it will avoid your problems. Some autostart programs do not work well (or at all) for various desktops. Using Compiz with Gnome, KDE, as an example will crash. Compiz does work fine with XFCE, Mate.

Gene, Thanks for the reply. Another thought I had was to use one of them as my main desktop , xfce, kde, whatever and Virtualbox the rest that I want to play with. Mixing them all on one install even though I keep trying doesn't really work like you said. ThanksDan

It might be heresy around here, but if you avoid Cinnamon and Mate and Compiz, then you can run Gnome/KDE/Xfce simultaneously. If you avoid Compiz and thus desktop effects in Mate (maybe Cinnamon I have not used it for a while) then you probably could run the lot. I have Gnome 3.6, Xfce 4.10 and KDE 4.8.4 installed in parallel. I started with LMDE Xfce, removed Mint update repos and added testing and then Sid, then added Gnome and then KDE. I am now running Gnome from experimental, but might be a step too far for anyone who relies on a stable system. Maybe others can answer the question of whether or not Cinnamon will run without Compiz. You would probably be better to choose Cinnamon or Gnome and not run the two together as there is too much shared infrastructure.